Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Cheers to everyone for all their good wishes! It was really appreciated! The day of the Ironman itself began with an alarm call at 3am, though I don’t think I really slept at all. I was aiming to be at the start between 4:30 and 5am. The previous days weather had been stormy; really wet and windy but the day of the event was due to be good so it was a dark cold start but at least it wasn’t raining!! The tranisition stuff had been sorted in the previous days so I just had to place drinks bottles on my bike and get into my wetsuit. Because of the nerves I left the top of my wetsuit open before the start so that I could breathe!! That picture above wasn’t all about nerves, I was actually trying to visualise myself swimming well and feeling good!

We had to swim about 200 to 300 metres to the race start. I got into the water and because it didn’t initially feel too cold I hadn’t realised I hadn’t closed the wetsuit correctly. As the whistle blew for the start I was well back but glad to be out of the madness up front! I caught people quite quickly though and there wasn’t too much pushing and shoving. After about 10 minutes I realised that water was getting into my suit and ponding in the hollows in my back and I was freezing and shivery. I just couldn’t warm up for the rest of the swim and my legs were really stiff and sore. I got through the laps and as I approached the last ten minutes or so I was determined no matter how cold to swim well and get out of the water happy. In tranisiton I got wrapped in foil blankets while I tried to get dressed. I was so cold I set off on the bike with about 4 layers of clothing!!
The bike was three 60k laps and it seemed to go by very slowly. They were hilly and meandered through little villages and country lanes. I just could not wait to get off that bike. I was not enjoying it at all but with 30k to go I suddenly realised that no matter what happened now I was actually gonna get through this! I had been worried about something going wrong with the bike that I couldn’t fix but with 30k to go I reckoned I could run the rest and still make the cut off (I probably couldn’t have, but that’s what I thought at the time!!!)
The next transition was a much quicker affair…threw the bike at someone, changed my shorts, put on my runners, grabbed a gel and my watch! Happy days! Finally running…..

That’s the face I had on leaving transition (trying to put on my watch!)and for the entire run. I felt like I was absolutely flying. I received huge crowd support because I was moving so much quicker than those around me and also wearing my Ireland kit was a good move (don’t anyone tell me the legalities of that, it was a great idea!!!). Crossed the line in 13 hours 12 minutes feeling fantastic! Highlight of the day included meeting Ireland’s Ironman record holder Alan Ryan before and after the event, he had lots of encouragement. He finished 15th in a time of 9:45:47. Well done Alan!!

Cheers for the good wishes and stats over on the IMRA forum. No ill effects the next day so there’s still lots of room for improvement the next time… ;-) Special thanks to “coach bloke” Peter Kern and “bike bloke” Rob Wheelworx!

Race results here.

-Aisling-